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Title: Hidden Schooling: Repeated Grades and the Returns to Education and Experience
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Kennedy, Kendall J.
Hidden Schooling: Repeated Grades and the Returns to Education and Experience
Presented: Chicago IL, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2017
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Common Core of Data (CCD); Educational Returns; Geocoded Data; Grade Retention/Repeat Grade; Modeling, Instrumental Variables

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study estimates the prevalence of ninth grade repeating and examines how recent growth in ninth grade repeating and how grade repeating in general introduce bias in estimation of the returns to education and experience. Using the National Center for Education Statistics' Common Core of Data, I construct estimates of ninth grade repeating rates for each state from 1965-2012. Since the late 1980s, about 10 percent of all public high school students repeated the ninth grade at least once. I then show that 10 percent of the growth in ninth grade repeating can be attributed to changes in Compulsory Schooling Laws (CSLs) over the past 50 years. The rise in ninth grade repeating has important implications for estimation of the returns to education and experience. Using the NLSY79 Children, I estimate the returns to education using CSLs and quarter of birth as instrumental variables, then correct for potential endogeneity with ninth grade repeating. Compulsory schooling instruments create bias of up to 38 percent when failing to account for endogenous ninth grade repeating. I then examine how grade repeating in any grade affects estimation of wage, hours, and employment differentials.
Bibliography Citation
Kennedy, Kendall J. "Hidden Schooling: Repeated Grades and the Returns to Education and Experience." Presented: Chicago IL, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2017.